Monday, June 6, 2011

Political Digest for June 6, 2011

I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article. Help your friends and relatives stay informed by passing the digest on.

A friend sent me a copy of Semper Cool, and I read it in 24 hours. It made me proud to be a Marine, and to have served in the same regiment as Cpl. Fixler, the 26th Marines--though I was lucky enough to be with HQ and to rotate home from Khe Sanh in September of 67, before things got bad. All Marines will appreciate Barry Fixler's no-BS account, but so will anyone who wants to know what it was really like at the sharp end, warts and all. Too many memoirs make the writer sound like Rambo. Fixler's has the ring of truth, of a fine combat Marine doing a tough job, making mistakes, and coming through. Be warned there are gritty accounts of both the horrors of battle, and the excesses of young warriors on leave. And the language is what you would expect of men in combat, not suitable for polite company. There's a lot of humor, too, the kind of stories only a Marine could tell. You won't regret buying this book for many reasons. I was especially pleased to see he was donating his royalties to a charity to help vets as I am doing with my book, Collapse. I hope he gets the sales he deserves. ~Bob

Tough column from a black writer. ~Bob. The axiom, "Show me a man's friends and I'll show you the man," is nowhere more evident than with Barack Obama. In my column "Michelle Obama's inner demons," I wrote "[Obama] claims two mentors and two people of greatest influence in his life – the race-baiting, hate-filled, Jeremiah Wright and his race-conscious, bitter wife." Nothing more need be said of Wright, but not enough can be said about his wife. Anger and resentment have been her constant companions in search of a home to be cultivated into a more centered hatred. We should be very concerned that she has the unfettered ear of the person who occupies the most powerful office in the world. Michelle Obama has a deep contempt for white people in America – something she has not been shy in making expressly clear for those who have cared to listen. Are we to believe that Obama does not share her contempt for the white establishment as well? It was she who got him involved in Wright's church. Obama was little more than a summer clerk, an intern, at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin. She was practicing law at the firm when he was hired as summer help and was assigned to mentor him.

And here I thought it was Bush and Global Warming at fault! ~Bob. Excerpt: President Obama is pointing to problems in Japan and Europe as challenges for the U.S. economy, placing some blame on events abroad for a domestic recovery that is showing signs of slowing down.

Excerpt: It’s perhaps not the most politically correct take on welfare in America’s black community, but an interesting one nonetheless. Walter E. Williams, a George Mason economist and author of “Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination?” is not a fan of the welfare state that exists in the country. In an appearance on Thursday night’s “Stossel” on the Fox Business Network, Williams argued that welfare has done more damage to black society than slavery or Jim Crow. “[T]he welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery could not have done, the harshest Jim Crow laws and racism could not have done, namely break up the black family,” Williams said. “That is, today, just slightly over 30 percent of black kids live in two parent families. Historically, from 1870s on up to about 1940s, and depending on the city, 75 to 90 percent of black kids lived in two parent families. Illegitimacy rate is 70 percent among blacks where that is unprecedented in our history.” But this isn’t just relegated to the American welfare state, but is seen in European welfare states as well. “Now, it’s not just a matter of a racial thing. Sweden is the mother of the welfare state and illegitimacy in Sweden is 54 percent,” he said.

Excerpt: Sweden’s famous ‘welfare state’ has attracted hordes of Muslim immigrants from third world countries and native Swedes are getting sick of paying their way and getting nothing but soaring rape and crime rates in return for their famous Swedish hospitality.

Egyptian Cleric Mazen Al-Sarsawi: We Ask a Person Nicely to Convert, But If He Refuses and Does Not Pay the Jizya Tax, We Fight Him

Good news. You will be asked nicely to convert. At first. ~Bob. Excerpt: "That is how these lowlifes have always acted in all their wars. What did America do when it won the war in Vietnam? It dropped an atomic bomb, causing total destruction. They did not spare anyone. That is the epitome of treachery, ignobility, baseness, and contempt, not to mention what it is doing in Iraq and in Afghanistan, and what the Jews are doing in Palestine… "The infidels are all one and the same. There is a vast difference between this and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, even with regard to war. The war of the Muslims is better than the peace of these dogs. […] "God says that there is no coercion in Islam. One is free to be a believer or an infidel. That is the starting point, but is someone who converted to Islam allowed to change his mind? No, he is not. […]

"The Qur'an does not forbid it": Cousin marriages in Muslim communities hit British health system as doctors fear charges of "racism" in addressing the issue

Excerpt: The message this phenomenon sends is that tying any practice, however damaging, to the fear of offending Islamic sensibilities makes it virtually untouchable. That is what happens when there emerges within a society a privileged class that is placed beyond criticism out of fear or a misguided effort to win "hearts and minds." This is also exactly what has happened with Islamic supremacism and jihadist aspirations within Britain's Muslim community. "It's time to confront this taboo: First cousin marriages in Muslim communities are putting hundreds of children at risk," by Sue Reid for the Daily Mail, June 3

Excerpt:How notions of leadership have changed since Eisenhower and Kennedy! Immense difficulties now have been imposed on the Nation and NASA by the budgetary actions and inactions of the Bush and Obama Administrations between 2004 and 2012. Space policy gains relevance today comparable to 50 years ago as the dangers created by the absence of a coherent national space policy have been exacerbated by subsequent adverse events. Foremost among these events have been the Obama Administration’s and the Congress’s spending and debt spree, the continued aggressive rise of China, and, with the exception of operations of the Space Shuttle and International Space Station, the loss of focus and leadership within NASA headquarters.